Chandler, Arizona-- Part of what makes being a basketball player at Chandler Gilbert College so awesome is the fact that the head coaches of both the Men's and Women's programs, do not shy away from taking on some of the best competition the nation has to offer. Over the weekend, both teams hosted highly touted junior college opponents out of the great state of Texas.
Thursday afternoon, Head Coach Steve Silsby, in his seventh season at the helm for the Coyotes, took on the South Plains Texans and was up 30-29 at halftime. Kasey Ruiz opened up the game with a quick three pointer from the top of the key and facilitated nicely throughout the first half. However, despite Meech Valdez feeling lucky with his 7 points and 7 rebounds in the second half, the speed of the visiting Texans proved a little too overwhelming for the home team. The final score was 74-63 in favor of South Plains.
On the afternoon of New Years Eve, the 10-3 Midland College Women's Basketball team took on the home Coyotes in what turned out to be a good old fashioned Texas shootout. The balanced scoring and hot shooting from the Coyotes saw them go up as much as 10 points to enter the fourth quarter, but with limited healthy bodies, it appears they ran out of gas. Aliyah Blackhat re-entered the starting lineup after some time and had 17 points. Mya Johnson controlled the game with her 19 points and Sam Sibbett came off the bench with 21 points.
With 7.9 seconds to go and the game tied at 77-77. The Coyotes had it underneath their own basket but were unable to score. Midland took possession at halfcourt after a timeout was called and scored in the remaining six seconds, giving the Coyotes only .03 to score a basket in which they were unable to do so. The final score was Midland 79, Chandler Gilbert 77.
